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I'm a councillor in the London Borough of Wandsworth; this blog mainly covers that, sometimes general politics and policy and occasionally anything else that takes my fancy.
Tag Archives: Mayor
Jane Cooper, an exceptional mayor
Much as I’m a fan of directly elected mayors, I recognise they have one weakness: they can never, ever, compete with the civic value of the traditional mayor. Tonight sees the annual change of Wandsworth’s mayor from Jane Cooper to Adrian Knowles, and the council and local press will mark this with their retrospectives. I’ve
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No mayors, but missed opportunities
A week after the elections one set of results particularly disappoints me. Not the Conservative and Lib Dem losses – while I’m sure we lost many fine councillors this election was a typical mid-term where the government is traditionally punished. Coming from a high point four years ago the losses were not at all surprising. What
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Getting the Mayor on Twitter
I go through phases of Twitter evangelism, and while I have my doubts about its value, I cannot deny that I enjoy using it enormously. But my passion alone has not been enough to persuade one of my colleagues, Piers McCausland, to use it actively. I did get him to set up an account, which
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The Worshipful, The Mayor of Wandsworth
After the tragic death of the Mayor of Wandsworth, Brian Prichard, it’s time to choose a new Mayor. And I’m delighted that Piers McCausland will be taking on the responsibility of first citizen tonight. Piers and I were both elected to the council in 1998 and I don’t think anyone would disagree with me saying
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Posted in Wandsworth
Also tagged Brian Prichard, Fairfield, Piers McCausland, St John's
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Brian Prichard
I’ve already written about Brian Prichard, the Mayor of Wandsworth, who died this month, but as last night saw the last pre-election council meeting dedicated mainly to tributes to him and today is his funeral service I thought it worth a few more moments of reflection. At a time when political emotions are heightened and,
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Brian Prichard
I was incredibly saddened to hear the news that Brian Prichard, the current Mayor of Wandsworth, died last night. Brian had been a councillor in Wandsworth for over 40 years. Although he started off in the Labour Party, he realised that he was in the wrong party in the 70s and left, resigning his seat
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Mayor’s Policing Newsletter
I’ve managed to get this three times so far (which makes it borderline spam, but I am on quite a few Mayoral and GLA lists) but it’s quite interesting reading. One of the odd things about confidence in policing and fear of crime is that the biggest driver is not changing policing methods or tackling
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Posted in Community Safety
Also tagged confidence, crime, GLA, Greater London Authority, Metropolitan Police Authority, MPA
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Weekly wrap-up, 11 December
Although I usually use this last post of the week to witter on about the past week I’m going start off with an event two weeks ago. Battersea Police Ball I can’t believe I forgot to mention this last week, but on Saturday 28 November I attended, along with about 1,500 other people, the Battersea
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Posted in Community Safety, Politics, Regeneration, Wandsworth
Also tagged Asda, Battersea Park, charity, Council, Fire Brigade, JCP, Jobcentre Plus, police, Police Ball, SNT, WESP
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Mayor freezes council tax again
Last week I touched on the Labour gimmick of freezing council tax in the eight London boroughs they control and suggested that, actually, if you wanted value and quality services you were better sticking with Conservative authorities that already had a track record. I failed to mention yesterday the Boris Johnson has again frozen the
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Posted in London, Politics
Also tagged Boris Johnson, budget, council tax, Ken Livingstone
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Running the council
I hope I’m wrong, but I suspect that how the council is run is another of those subjects that those people involved, but no-one else, gets terribly exercised about. Wandsworth currently runs a ‘Leader and Executive’ system. Every four years there’s an election – and residents choose 60 councillors. Those councillors then elect a leader
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